I want to turn you on to a great track.

I got an e-mail.  About Sirius XM.  The listener wanted the company to understand, we didn’t want to tear the service down, we wanted it to be BETTER!  We wanted to go back to those XM days when we couldn’t leave the car, when we had to sit in the dark and not only finish hearing what was pouring out of the stereo, but what came next.

I had one of those experiences Saturday night.

What Mel Karmazin doesn’t understand is music sells satellite radio.  There’s nothing that can compete on the terrestrial bands, nothing without commercials.  Instead, the company takes full page ads trumpeting their talk stations.  Huh?  Like someone is going to wake up today and become a Howard Stern fan?  Hell, most of his audience didn’t even migrate to Sirius.  As for Oprah and Martha Stewart…did I miss something, do they have reps for being great radio broadcasters, are they even on their stations?

No, the linchpin is music.  Theatre of the mind.  Creating stations that are not just compilations of the top forty tracks in the genres, but listening posts, bars, clubs where fans want to hang out.

That’s the rage online.  The club.  And clubs in real life are all about the vibe, talk to a creator, they finesse the smallest details, the physical space has got to be exactly right.  So, how can Sirius XM fuck up the number one mindspace so bad?

I don’t know.

But some of the old XM stations remain.  Like the Loft.

Just before midnight, I was cruising Wilshire towards the freeway and I heard this lyric:

Heaven knows I’m a pain
Heaven knows I’m an animal
A criminal
I’m gonna fuck it up once again
I’m gonna kill another friendship
Gonna knock it down
Knock it down
‘Cause I’m such an asshole

With the death of the mainstream, it’s not about blanding out your material to appeal to an ever-decreasing mass, but being yourself, letting your warts and creativity shine through, so the audience can hook onto you like velcro.

But I’m still an asshole
I just push
I just push that girl away

Wow.  Honesty.

I’d love to have you hear this Julian Coryell track, but I can’t find anywhere to stream it online.

But then this song ended.  And what came next didn’t quite float my boat.  So I started pushing buttons.  That’s the theoretical magic of satellite radio, you can jump around and find a plethora of interesting stuff.  But what was playing on the other stations lacked the magic of "Asshole", and once on the 405, I eventually found myself back on the Loft.  Where I heard a track so good, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard it before.

That’s the power of radio.  What it used to be and could be once again.  The FILTER!  We want someone else to do the job, of combing through the crap, to find the gems.  We want people we can trust to do this job for us.

But we don’t trust anyone on the terrestrial band.  And the bloggers are so inside, laden with so much attitude, so many biases, that it’s hard to find someone online you can trust.  But I’m still checking in at the Loft, to see what I can find.

And I found a gem Saturday night.

The car is the ultimate listening room.  Just you alone, doing a job, but with enough brain space to concentrate on tunes.  You hear the right one, it energizes you, allows you to speed to your destination without frustration, it’s like you’ve got a passenger, riding shotgun.

"Rise Above It" is not new.  It came out in 2003.  But it’s new to ME!

Sure, I know that Afro Celt Sound System song with Peter Gabriel, "When You’re Falling", it’s great.  But I’d never heard "Rise Above It".

I came in in the middle, about five minutes in, when the fiddle starts to wail.  It’s like I opened up a door in the darkness and found a party, without a barker outside imploring me to come in, no one was selling, there were just people inside having the time of their lives!

In an era where too much music is an assault, where divas try to score on a scale, proving their range but shrieking us away, I just wanted to get closer to "Rise Above It", I didn’t want it to end, I couldn’t get out of the car until it was done.

There are actually two tracks, if you’re playing at home on Spotify, it’s easy.  "Rise" and "Rise Above It".  The former is the intro, just like those tracks bleed together and build to "Spiritual High (State Of Independence)" on Moodswings’ "Moodfood".

Yes, "Rise" is a three minute intro to "Rise Above It", an awakening.  It’s like you’re being tapped on the shoulder, it’s time to get out of bed.

And at the beginning of "Rise Above It", you’re walking around the house, into the kitchen, grinding up some coffee.

Then, the day begins.  You’re sitting at the table, ingesting your caffeine, reading the paper, you’re conscious, you’re awake.  And Mundy starts to sing.

Mundy sounds like Bono.  Can’t say the lyrics are extremely memorable, but I’d rather hear "Rise Above It" in a stadium than anything off U2’s new album.  Because "Rise Above It" makes you move, you just can’t help yourself!  And that’s the essence of stadium music.  You can’t really see, but you can feel!  And when the music gets inside you, when done right, you become inhabited, you can’t help moving, no matter how challenged you might usually be on the dance floor.

And the song is building.  Kind of like Kraftwerk’s "Autobahn", which has just been released in a remastered box, the magic is mindblowing.

But back to "Rise Above It".  They’re taking their time.  They don’t need to get to the chorus.  Hell, it takes three and a half minutes to build to the refrain.

And it’s after that that the song truly takes off.  When the fiddle comes in, when you’re at altitude, you’re soaring!

But don’t unbuckle your seat belt.  Because this is the Concorde.  Hell, you thought that plane was decommissioned, just like there was no good new music.  But hang in there, we’re going STRATOSPHERIC!

Yup, just beyond five minutes, they throw the lever and we’re in hyperspace!  An unknown land that feels so GOOD!

We need people to connect the dots.  We need places casual listeners, fans who like music but don’t want to dedicate hours a day searching online, can find great tunes.

Satellite radio could be the solution.

Maybe Sirius XM fails, but we’re going to go somewhere to find out what’s good.  A site.  With a trusted source.  A human being.  Who takes us on an aural journey.  No computer, no logarithm can tell me if I like AC/DC and Joni Mitchell that I’ll love "Rise Above It".  But I love ALL THREE!

To hear "Rise Above It", google "afro celt sound system rise above it".  Click the Lala button.

If you want to hear "Rise", which precedes "Rise Above It" on the album, google: "afro celt sound system rise".  Click the Lala button.